Lucid and Bolt to Deploy 25,000 Robotaxis Across Europe; First Vehicle Enters Roundabout, Has Not Left
The Nvidia-powered fleet is designed for dense urban environments, which engineers now define as "environments with an exit."
TALLINN, Estonia — Lucid and the ride-hailing company Bolt announced a partnership Wednesday to deploy more than 25,000 autonomous robotaxis across European cities by the end of the decade, with a long-term goal of 100,000 vehicles by 2035, and confirmed that the program's first test vehicle entered a roundabout outside Paris on Monday morning and remains there.
"European cities present unique challenges for autonomy," said a Bolt spokesperson. "Narrow streets. Cyclists. Pedestrians who do not believe in the crosswalk. And the roundabout, which our vehicle has now experienced for 51 hours."
The vehicle, built on Lucid's midsize platform and running Nvidia's Hyperion architecture, is reportedly performing flawlessly within the roundabout, maintaining a consistent speed, yielding correctly to entering traffic, and signaling its intent to exit at each of the six exits before deciding, at the last moment, that the gap "was not safe."
Engineers monitoring the vehicle remotely say it is not stuck but "waiting for a confidence threshold," and that its logs show it has identified the correct exit 2,800 times. "It knows where it's going," one said. "It just also knows that a Renault Clio is coming, and it always is."
The companies say the fleet will eventually operate in 40 cities, and that European roundabouts are "well within the design envelope," with the current situation reflecting an "over-tuned safety margin" that will be relaxed after regulators sign off, which will happen after the vehicle exits the roundabout.
French motorists have adapted. Several reported using the robotaxi as a landmark. One commuter said she had started timing her morning drive by its position, "like a very slow clock."
At press time, the vehicle had signaled again.